On the "CRIME" page (by Marilyn Stasio), I saw this:
"Like every other title in Paul Charles's series of detective novels about
Inspector Christy Kennedy, THE HISSING OF THE SILENT LONELY ROOM (Do-Not
Press/Dufour, cloth $29.95; paper $15.95) sounds as if it wants to be a song
title. Only this time the musical tonalities of the writing harmonize with
the moody themes of the story, which begins with the death of Esther
Bluewood, a beloved American singer-songwriter ("the missing female link
between Joni Mitchell and the New Wave") who apparently gassed herself in the
kitchen of her London home. If Esther gets no sympathy from those who were
closest to her, including her faithless husband and her sullen lover, she is
treated gently by Inspector Kennedy, whose analysis of her music and her
personal journals convinces him that her death was a cunningly contrived
murder. For someone who is dead when the narrative opens, Esther emerges as
an extraordinarily vital character, warmed to life by an uncommonly sensitive
cop."
LAHM
